From its first performance in 1846 Elijah was hailed as the greatest oratorio since Handel's Messiah.

In 1896 George Grove confirmed that view and asked, "What more does any work of musical art require?" Grove continued: "Fortunately every additional fact that is elicited about this great composer testifies all the more to his insight, to the depth and warmth of his feelings, and to the indefatigable earnestness with which he worked until he had the entire meaning of his text and expressed it in music to the utmost of his power and with all the dramatic force that it was capable of."